The views of the Anglo-Jewish Association on the Palestine problem were formulated here in a statement issued by Leonard Stein, its president, who emphasized that “the Association and its Council have always included representatives of various shades of Jewish opinion,” including Zionists and non-Zionists. The statement reads:
1. We desire to see Palestine opened after the War to Jewish immigration on the largest practicable scale, bearing in mind that it will be a matter of urgent practical importance to provide new homes for Jewish emigrants in numbers which cannot be precisely foreseen, but will certainly be large enough to constitute a serious problem; that no other territory is, in fact, at present available for large scale Jewish settlement; that we have in Palestine the immense advantage of being able to build upon foundations already laid; and that it is shown beyond dispute by what has already been achieved there that Palestine has an imaginative appeal which is a powerful stimulus to creative activity.
2. When we say that we desire to see liberal facilities provided in Palestine for Jewish immigration, we are not merely expressing an abstract hope. We mean that, in surveying the problems relating to Jews which will press for solution after the war, we regard the opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration as a matter of primary importance, that we are seriously concerned about it, and that we shall work for it vigorously when the time arrives.
HOPES ICA WILL SUPPORT PALESTINE DEVELOPMENT PLANS
3. We attach great important to the fullest possible development of the economic resources and potentialities of Palestine and shall do our best to secure support for any well-conceived practical proposals having this end in view. We hope that such proposals may have a place in the post-war program of the Jewish Colonization Association, and we should welcome a decision to that effect.
4. We regard it as axiomatic that the Jews settled in Palestine should be free to develop a way of life moulded by themselves and to preserve and enrich their spiritual and cultural heritage.
5. ‘Recognizing the complexity of the Palestine problem in its political and constitutional aspects, we refrain, at this stage, from advancing explicit proposals. We could not assent to any arrangement which made race or religion the criterion of citizenship or which involved or implied discrimination between citizens of Palestine on grounds of race or religion. Neither, on the other hand, could we assent to any arrangement which closed the door to the eventual admission to Palestine of Jewish immigrants to the full extent of its capacity to absorb them.
6. It follows from what has been said that we disagree with the policy laid down in the White Paper of 1939 and will urge that it be reconsidered.”
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